Chapter 60
For several seconds Sabri and Jason faced each other in the darkened room. Outside the house, traffic went past; they heard a neighbour calling out goodnight to someone. Jason said, ‘I wish you’d tell me where it is.’
‘I wear it,’ Sabri confessed. ‘It’s sewn into my bra.’
He gave a hollow laugh.
‘If someone threatens one of the kids, I’ll give it to them,’ she admitted. ‘I won’t hesitate.’
He gave a long, audible sigh. ‘I guess I won’t either.’
Tears were a second away. ‘What are we going to do?’ she asked.
‘We could sell it.’
The last thing she’d expected. ‘What?’
‘Sell it,’ he repeated. ‘Auction it.’
‘Are you serious?’
‘Yep. We’re too – what’s the word? – vulnerable. I can’t protect you and the kids, not all day every day. What if someone snatches one of them? We need money now, for a safer house. Better schools.’
She said, ‘Logan Quick has less than a year to live.’
‘I can’t keep you safe for a year, Sab. If we hold on to that thing, something really bad’s going to happen.’
Exactly what Sabri had been telling herself for the last hour.
‘Then we get rid of it,’ she said. No amount of money could make up for something happening to her family. ‘We chuck it in the sea.’
‘No, we sell it. The whole bloody world knows about Logan Quick and his ruddy tokens. We can put it on eBay or, I don’t know, hold one of those press conferences. We can agree a minimum price we sell it for. Say ten million. Someone offers us that, someone legit, and we hand it over.’
Jason got up and joined Sabri on the sofa, taking both her hands in his. ‘Ten million will change our lives, Sab. Ten million will make all the difference. Ten million is enough. Sod it, I’ll take five. Even one. Nothing matters more than you and the kids.’
This. This was why she loved this dumb, reckless man of hers. Sabri felt tears well up and let them fall without even trying to stop them.
She said, ‘No one will pay ten million for a coin that might be worthless.’
‘A coin that might be worth billions. Even hundreds of millions. Isn’t it worth a try?’
‘And if it turns out we could have inherited billions?’
He got up, reached for her hand and pulled her up from the sofa. ‘Babe, what will we do with billions? Let’s quit while we’re ahead.’